A New Crazy Quilt Project

Well, I feel a little bit better today because I slept a little better last night.  We had a little scare with Scott's port this morning.  He must have slept on it wrong and when he woke up, it had been bleeding.  I think the way he was sleeping was pushing on it.  Anyway, we called the nurse at the cancer center at Loyola hospital and after asking him a bunch of questions, she determined that it was okay and it would be okay.  He didn't have to go in.  Which was good because it's a 2 1/2 hour drive from our house to Loyola in Chicago.

So, I ran my errands this morning, got him everything that he needed, filled my gas tank because we're expecting 10 tons of snow tomorrow (can't wait to push that around - NOT!) and I just made myself a cup of tea and turned my computer on to print up a few pictures.

I decided to start a new crazy quilt project.  After reading Betty Pillsbury's new book:

Crazy Quilts - A Beginners Guide, I was inspired to create something kind of different from anything I've done before.  Betty's work is a little more traditional than mine.  She pieces her blocks by hand which I've never done.  And she uses a lot more embroidery than I do.  And by the way, this book is awesome!!!!  You can order it from Amazon.  It's loaded with gorgeous photos of Betty's work!!!

Okay so here's my plan:  I love history and always have.  Especially the history of where I live, McHenry Illinois.  Like most small towns, we still have a lot of old buildings that have been put on the county register and protected by the McHenry County Historical Society.  Many of them have been beautifully restored.  I have been collecting historical photos of my area for years and years and thought it would be nice to take some of these old photos and work them into a crazy quilt. 

After reading Betty's book and seeing all the awesome photos of her work, I decided that this would have to be very Victorian and traditional looking.  So I plan to hand piece my blocks.  There will be 9 of them.  So far, I've chosen 8 photos and still have to pick out one more.

I'll be focusing on embroidery more than do-dads.  Embellishments will be kept to a minimum - my antique lace and some of my vintage Mother Of Pearl buttons.  I'll be giving the photos a sepia tint in Photoshop and using darker, more Victorian fabric colors and lighter colored threads for stitching.  The embroidery should pop!

As I work on each block, I'll share the story behind the building in the photo so here is my first:

This is St. Mary's Of The Assumption Catholic Church.  It's the church that I go to and where Scott and I were married.

St. Mary's was built in 1898.  In 1917, tragedy struck.  The church had a fire that started in the rectory.  The steeple and roof were destroyed.

Notice the piano in this photo down and the left!



It's always sad for me to see these photos of St. Mary's but thankfully, the main part of the church was saved and the damage was repaired.

Notice the difference in the steeple compaired to the first photo at the top.  The new steeple is much shorter now!

Anyway, this is St. Mary's today:

Anyway, the photo that I'll be using is the first one and it will be in the center block.

I thought this project, along with the Never Ending Sampler Stitch Along would help to get my mind off of worrying about things so much.  Hopefully, but the time I get this quilt all done, my husband will be free of the damned cancer and he'll be healthy again and driving me crazy like he used to!  LOL!!!

Scott really is the center of my world and because we were married here at St. Mary's, I chose to use the church on the center block.  I'm going to start printing a few photos and start piecing my first block so I'll share progress pics as I go along.